This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Two’s Tougher Than One
When I teach, we’re always talking about the difficulties of photographing people. Most of the people in the class have gotten the hang of it by day two or three.
That’s the point at which I tell them, “Okay, you can do it now. That was not your comfort zone, but now it is. From here on, you’ve got to do two people. That’s about 10 times tougher than doing one person.”
Sometimes my instructions are not so clear to everyone. For instance, there was one guy who was doing wonderful formal portraits with one subject looking at the camera.
To give me what he thought I wanted, or possibly just to pull my chain, he brought in images with two people looking formally at the camera.
I quietly said, “I didn’t ask you to add a person. I thought you’d understand that I meant two people relating to each other.”
That’s the ultimate gesture, the revelation, and counterpoint when you get two people relating to each other.
When they get good with two, I tell them to try three. It always gets tougher. Don’t stop at easy.
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